


The Girl Next Door

by FeyduBois



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dorks in Love, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance Flash Bang 2018, Multi, coran is best space uncle, deep talks in communal bathrooms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 12:32:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14852822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeyduBois/pseuds/FeyduBois
Summary: After five years in space Lance wakes up one morning and realizes that he’s in love with his best friend.





	The Girl Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> Done for Lance Flash Bang 2018! 
> 
> Pairing: Lance/Pidge (mentioned Shiro/Allura, Hunk/Shay, Keith/Matt and past Keith/Lance)
> 
> Warnings: Mild sexy-times. Discussion of bodily functions including menstruation.
> 
> ART WORK BY MADDIE CAN BE FOUND HERE: https://randumbdaze.tumblr.com/post/174607910268/art-for-the-girl-next-door-by-fairylaughing-for

“Wow, you are really hung up on this lady,” Lance says as Hunk tells them about Shay.  
“No, it’s not like that…” Hunk tries to explain. “Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people, how he’s destroyed their home… it’s like they’ve been under his thumb for so long they don’t even know what it is to be free. It’s up to us to set this right, this is what it is to be a paladin of Voltron. It’s time to man up.”  
“Then let’s get moving,” Shiro says. “It’s time to defend the universe.”  
“Wait,” Pidge says as Shiro and Keith make to leave. “I have something to say first. I need to come clean, and I’m afraid this may change the way you all think about me.” Pidge shifts nervously, “Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can’t ‘man up’... I’m a girl.”  
Lance’s brain stops working. Pidge, the boy he’d taken on after-hours escapades, the boy he’d waxed poetic to about cadet Peterson’s figure, Cox’s eyes, and King’s lips is in fact a girl herself. Pidge had awkwardly agreed to Lance’s remarks, as had Hunk, all the while rolling their eyes in the same ‘oh Lance’ way.  
“Wait, what?” Lance is left in shock as everyone else shrugs it off; most of them already knew. “Pidge is a girl and the castle is a ship? How long have I been out?”  
It’s Coran who eventually pushes Lance towards the hanger, “Pidge is still your friend and fellow paladin.”  
“Coran, I…”  
“Once I had a romance with a lovely alien. I thought she was a lady but it turned out that their species had eight different genders and five biological sexes. Can you imagine? The world is far stranger, and more beautiful, than you might realize if you only look at it as a binary.”  
“I… what?”  
“Come now lad, best be off.”

Lance chews on Coran’s words. The next morning his sudden thought was far more practical, and more jarring, as he climbs into the Blue Lion’s cockpit and remembers the first time he was in it, his friends riding shotgun.  
“Oh my god,” Lance says aloud. “I farted in front of a girl.”

It’s three months later before Lance is again reminded of this part of Pidge. They’re in the communal paladin bathroom, Pidge is in one of the stalls with what passes for a toilet and Lance is at the sink, shaving.  
“Lance,” she calls, “Could you get Allura for me?”  
The paladins suffering tummy troubles from space goo is nothing new. “Do you want some meds? Do you need the ‘go’ or the ‘stop’?”  
“This isn’t that.”  
“Girls poop too, I’ve changed my niece’s diapers. Did you eat Coran’s dessert yesterday? You’ll want the ‘stop’ for that.”  
“It’s my period.” Pidge’s voice is terse. “Just get Allura.”  
Lance flags down Hunk from the doorway and asks him to fetch Allura, and then perches on the counter and starts talking. “Did I ever tell you about the time I told my entire family I got my period?”  
“What?”  
“I was five. My eldest sister got a chocolate cake to celebrate hers. I mean, we all got a piece, but she got to stay home from school and ma took her shopping. You’re allowed special privileges, y’know?”  
“I guess.”  
“I wanted a cake too. So at Sunday lunch I stood up and announced to everyone, my entire family, _tias_ and all, that I got my period and I wanted sprinkles on my cake.”  
Pidge laughed, “That must’ve been pretty funny.”  
“Ma explained it only happened to girls. I thought it was unfair but, I guess given all the cramps and stuff you have to deal with it’s fair to get a couple days off, especially if it’s bad. Are yours bad?”  
“Uh, this is my first.”  
“No way! What kind of cake do you want? How about chocolate peanut-butter, or whatever Hunk can concoct that’s close.”  
“Lance…” Pidge groans. “Don’t make a big deal.”  
“It won’t be a party, just dessert. You’re a woman, we should celebrate.”  
Lance couldn’t see her face but he could hear the blush in Pidge’s voice, “You don’t need to.”  
“Oh _chiquita_ , you’re special to us, and everyone will find out anyway. No secrets, you said so yourself.”  
“Peanut-butter chocolate sounds good.”

It’s five years later and they’ve fallen into a comfortable dynamic. With Shiro and Allura married, Hunk and Shay together, and Matt and Keith (unexpectedly) dating, Lance found himself craving something more substantial in his relationships. He’s had flings with alien women, human women, and men, including Keith, but he is tiring of the ‘lover boy’ persona. The wall next to his bed is plastered with photos of his Earth family, his space family, and his friends across the universe, many of which were also lovers. With a sigh Lance pulls the mask over his eyes and drifts into sleep.  
Lance is dreaming; a woman’s beautiful laugh is in his ear and her small, sinewy body is enveloped in his arms. The smell of her is overwhelming, familiar. It kindles a flame in a part of him he didn’t know very well. This kind of love is what they have; this is what Shiro and Allura have, what Hunk and Shay have, what his parents had… and he wants it.

He traces the woman’s back with his eyes. She’s petite, but strong, her skin milky pale and dappled with freckles. Lance inhales deeply when he recognizes the hair, fine strands in a light natural auburn drawn back into a short ponytail.  
“Lance?” dream-Pidge asks him and Lance hardly dares breathe.  
“Hey babe.”  
Pidge’s hazel eyes meet his, full of devotion and a gentle kind of lust novel to his twenty-two years. She’s in his arms and he can only go along; he knows he’s dreaming, but Lance doesn’t want to wake up.  
When he does wake, however, it’s to shame-soaked sheets and an ache for a thing he doesn’t have a proper name for yet. This isn’t right, he knows, Pidge isn’t… she’s not like that. She’s his friend.

Lance can’t help but be awkward around Pidge after that, and he hopes it isn’t too obvious (it’s very obvious). One evening while he’s helping Hunk with dinner Hunk confronts him. “What’s up with you and Pidge?”  
“What?”  
“Dude, you’re being weird. Not looking at her in the change rooms, avoiding her, asking what she thinks of your exes...”  
“I think I like her… _like-like_ her.”  
“Huh. Have you said anything?”  
“Um, no.”  
“Why not?” Hunk asks.  
“Pidge is my bro,” Lance says.  
“She could be more.”  
“Not yet.”  
“Okay.” Hunk shrugs. “But you realize she’ll call you out on it eventually.”

Pidge did. It was not in front of everyone, he was spared that embarrassment, but perhaps more embarrassingly she caught him with his pants down as he was stripping for a shower.  
“Pidge!” he yelped and pulled his pants back up, quickly covering his chest.  
“I’ve seen it all Lance, c’mon.”  
“Okay…” Lance lowered his arms, his posture stiff.  
“Okay?” Pidge turned to him. She crossed her arms over her chest, her chest which had filled out over the past few years, Lance was just now noticing. He felt like he was sixteen all over again, nevermind that he was pushing twenty-three. “We need to talk.”  
“About what?”  
Pidge leaned against the sink and eyed Lance up and down, frowning. “About the way you’ve been acting around me lately.”  
“Hah, about that…”  
“I don’t know what I did wrong but I’m sorry. You need to tell me what it is and how I can fix it. I don’t like having you mad at me. You’re my best friend.”  
“I’m not mad.”  
“Then why are you acting so weird?”  
“ _I_ did something wrong,” he says.  
“What’d you do?” her voice is low with agitation.  
“No, no, I didn’t actually do anything, I just…” Lance inhaled deeply, and then, “Wait… I’m your best friend?”  
“Yes.”  
“You’re mine. I just… I had a dream and it got me thinking...  
"Sounds dangerous," she joked.  
"If this is a dumb idea or if you don’t feel anything you can ignore me. But I’ve been thinking about you lately… and...” Lance looks at the ground, the now-familiar alien tile, afraid of lifting his gaze. “I’d like to try to be more than friends.”  
A few ticks that feel like years go by until cool hand touches his chin and raises his face up to hers. “ _Lance…_ ” Pidge says, “I think I like you too.”  
Lance can hardly believe his ears, but his body knows what to do and he wraps his arms around Pidge and kisses her deeply. He’s about to pull away and make sure she’s okay with this when Pidge responds in kind, kissing him back with a certain passion he’d only dreamt of.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this wasn't too out of character, esp. for Pidge. I had trouble getting the word-count down to where it was supposed to be for the challenge and that cut some of my character-building/Pidge-centric scenes.


End file.
